The Mersin ophiolite, located near the eastern border of the Central Taurus Belt in southern Turkey, occupies an area of approximately 1000 km². Ophiolitic rocks, overlain by subhorizontal Miocene limestone, contain the following units: tectonites (harzburgites and dunites) underlain by an amphibolitic sole, cumulates (wehrlites, pyroxenites and gabbros} and pillow lavas with volcano-sedimentary intercalations. Metamorphic rocks, showing an inverted metamorphic zonation from upper amphibolite facies to greenschist facies, crop out discontinuously along the base of the Mersin ophiolite thrust sheet on the southern flank of the Bolkardag. These metamorphic rocks indicate polyphase deformation and have been folded and imbricated. Major, trace and REE geochemistry suggest that the metamorphic rocks were derived from ocean lsland/seamount basaltic rocks and associated sedimentary units. Numerous tholeiitic microgabbroic-diabasic dikes, unaffected by the metamorphism and oriented nearly E-W, intrude the metarnorphics. In terms of their trace and REE chemistry, these dikes have the chemical signature of MORB and VAB suggesting a supra-sub-duction zone tectonic setting. K-Ar analyses on hornblendes yield an age of 93.4±2 Ma, which represents the initial detachment of the oceanic crust (i.e. the Mersin ophiolite) during closure of the Neo-Tethyan ocean in the Eastern Mediterranean.